1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a management system for a personal handyphone system (hereinafter referred to as PHS) terminal, and more particularly to a PHS terminal disabling system for disabling or invalidating the use of a PHS terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A communication system in which PHS terminals are used includes cell sites which communicate with a PHS terminal by means of radio waves, an exchange connected to the cell site, and a data base which is connected to the exchange and holds management data for the PHS terminals.
Conventionally, a PHS terminal is disabled by manually changing the management data for the PHS terminal on the data base from a use permitting condition to a use inhibiting condition.
PHS terminals are frequently lent owing to their portability, and such disabling processing as described above is performed also for a PHS terminal which is not recovered even after the lending term expires.
A system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Heisei 3-100894 wherein, when a portable terminal is stolen, the theft is manually notified to a host computer, and then, the host computer transmits an identification number of the stolen portable terminal and a code representative of such theft to the portable terminal so that the stolen portable terminal invalidates, upon reception of the notification, a key inputting operation thereof.
Another system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Heisei 4-104625 wherein an owner of a portable terminal which has been stolen or lost sends a transmission inhibition code to the portable terminal to inhibit a transmission operation of the portable terminal.
A disabling operation of a portable terminal in the prior art systems described above is performed manually and limits the use of the portable terminal with respect to the time but does not restrict the available area in which the portable terminal can be used.
PHS terminals are lent in most cases in a limited space of an exhibition hall or a like place, and where the limitation in use of a portable terminal is performed with respect to the time as described above, since a portable terminal can be used also outside the exhibition hall, a person to whom a portable terminal has been lent likely forgets to return the portable terminal. Thus, the conventional systems described above are disadvantageous in that the recovery rate when portable terminals are lent is low.